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New website for all Brussels noise complaints

20:27 19/11/2017

An official new website aims to make it easier for Brussels residents to file noise complaints - ranging from aircraft and building sites to car alarms and barking dogs.

Infobruit.brussels is available in French and Dutch (www.ruisinfo.brussels) and contains information on the different rules in force and sets out to create a single database of all noise issues in the Brussels region.

The region's environment minister Céline Fremault said 70 percent of people in Brussels consider noise to be one of the main environmental issues affecting their quality of life. Almost two-thirds of the complaints handled by Brussels Environment each year relate to noise.

"In a city of more than a million people, anything from business activities to social and cultural events and transport can be sources of noise," she said. "Understanding the legal framework and how to complain has until now been a real obstacle course, because so many different bodies were involved."

The new site has the backing of Brussels Environment, Brussels Mobility, the Stib, SNCB and railtrack operator Infrabel. The aim is to create a common complaints handling system and "give people a quick and effective response", Fremault said.

Among the sources of noise pollution covered by the site are cars, public transport, air traffic, building work, neighbours, noisy air conditioning and ventilation units, garden noise, deliveries, markets, disorder in public places, venues paying music, churches and cafe terraces.

Depending on the type of noise, the site explains who is responsible for enforcement and how complaints work.